Archaeology of the open moor Dartmoor National Park Authority High Moorland Visitor Centre Princetown Devon PL20 6QF /ponyleaflet/5/10/mac Tel: 01822 890414 e-mail: [email protected] www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk biodiversity,farming&tourism/landman/ponies 1128.4/ For south west England timetable enquires phone Traveline: 0871 200 22 33 Front cover images: Longstone © DNPA; Bennett’s Cross © Thomas Dobner Front cover images: Longstone © DNPA; All other images © DNPA Back cover: Batworthy area, round pound droveway © DNPA © Dartmoor National Park Authority 2010 Wallabrook clapper bridge The history of human activity on The reason why so much has remained Dartmoor goes back more than 10,000 undisturbed over the years is because years, although the visible remains Dartmoor has not been intensively date from about 4,000 BC to the farmed in recent times, and also present. Here people have lived, because most features were built using farmed, worked stone and minerals, hard-wearing granite. These features practised their religion and buried will endure wind and weather, but their dead. All these activities have can so easily lose their meaning and left their mark as archaeological value if disturbed by digging or by features on the ground - stone walls, displacement of their stones. earth-covered mounds and banks, stones set upright, hollows and ditches. The purpose of this leaflet is to illustrate the variety of archaeological features Dartmoor is one of the few areas in you might come across on the open the country where we can see not moor. It is hoped that by learning to just individual features, but collections recognise them damage will be of related features. These show us prevented. how large areas of land were organised and used in the past. Prehistoric Dartmoor Many thousands of years ago, Dartmoor was almost wholly covered in trees. Prehistoric people made clearings in the forest and hunted wild animals. Later (from around 4,000 BC) they began to use the area as a burying ground and (from about 2,500 BC) erected stone monuments which were probably used for ritual or religious purposes. Meanwhile Cairn and stone row, Drizzlecombe most of the woodland cover was gradually removed and Dartmoor then became an important farming region, used chiefly for grazing animals. From approximately 1,600 BC or earlier, circular houses were built and eventually fields were laid out using stone boundary walls. Around 1,000 BC changes in the weather and soils led to the gradual desertion of the high moor. Burials Burial mounds, usually known as cairns, are very common. They appear as rounded Ring cairn aerial, Stalldon © English Heritage piles of stones (sometimes turf covered), often low and flat but some are as high as 3.5 metres, and can be anything up to 35 metres in diameter. Some cairns have a retaining circle of upright stones around them. Many burials within or below mounds were contained in cists - box-like structures made from granite slabs. The mounds originally covering these have often disappeared. More difficult to recognise are ring cairns - no mound, but instead a low bank enclosing a level area. Cist, Drizzlecombe Stone circle, Scorhill Round house, Kestor Monuments Houses and fields Stone circles consist of upright stones Prehistoric round houses are sometimes enclosing a flat circular area, diameter known as hut circles. These are formed 19 - 35 metres. The stones which make either of upright granite slabs or of ‘drystone’ up these monuments can vary in height walling, with a gap for the entrance. They from a few centimetres up to 3 metres. can be up to 1m in height and 3-10 metres in diameter. Originally they had a conical roof of wood and turf or thatch. Standing Stones, or menhirs, are isolated upright stones. The round houses can be isolated but usually occur in groups, like villages, Stone Rows are made sometimes scattered over a hillside or up of upright stones of sometimes surrounded by an enclosure wall. varying size set some The remains of prehistoric fields cover a distance apart in single, vast area of Dartmoor (over 10,000 hectares), double or very and their remarkable survival makes them occasionally triple lines. of national importance. The field boundaries, Standing stone, Merrivale The shortest known row known as reaves, are low rounded earth is 32 metres in length, and stone banks, which and the longest is over can be up to several 3.4 km. Often burial kilometres long. Often mounds are found in the ground is divided or near stone rows. into long rectangular fields by an arrangement of parallel reaves. Small irregular-shaped Stone row, Merrivale fields occur sometimes Reave, Kestor around settlements. Medieval and later Dartmoor In medieval and later times central Dartmoor was used in many different ways. In particular it became an important industrial area. From the 12-19th century, tin ore was taken from the ground and crushed and smelted. Granite from the surface, and later from quarries, was used for gateposts, water troughs and so on. Haytor quarry Peat was cut from the high moor and used as fuel. Networks of channels (leats) were dug to carry water to power machinery at industrial sites or to supply farms and dwellings. From the 19th century a large area of moorland has been used as a military training ground and a new set of artefacts, such as observation posts and target tramways have been added to the landscape. From perhaps as early as the 8th century AD onwards, new attempts were made Gidleigh leat to farm the open moorland. Farmhouses were built and new fields created, but many were later abandoned, particularly during the 14th century; other farms have been deserted as recently as the 20th century. Challacombe medieval strip lynchets Quarry, Foggintor Tin streaming, Ditsworthy Industry You will see the ruins of many buildings Old extractive industrial sites can often on Dartmoor. Some, like beehive huts, be identified by heaps of discarded once used as stores or shelters, may stones, sometimes retained by drystone be difficult to recognise. More often walls or arranged in long low banks. buildings are rectangular with the They will often be found by streams, remains of drystone or mortared walls. or next to large gullies (openworks) Some were built and abandoned quite or around mine-shafts and quarries. recently but their ruins are still important. They are associated Near some of these with both industrial and sites may be seen agricultural activities. the remains of the The ruins of blowing processing areas, houses, where tin buildings, water ore was crushed channels, pits and and smelted, may walls which give be encountered. Tinner’s hut, Beehive hut, Postbridge Headland Warren the ground a very Here may be seen uneven surface. the remains of the pit where a waterwheel At some of the later stood, the hollowed-out industrial sites the granite mortarstone remains of railways or on which the ore tramways may be seen. was crushed, or the Some carried stone, mouldstones for tin or peat off the moor. making ingots. Tramway, Haytor Blowing house, Black Tor Bennetts Cross Medieval village, Houndtor Farming and can vary from about 5 - 30 metres Most medieval farmhouses on Dartmoor in length; they were made for rabbits were longhouses where humans and to burrow into. A well organised rabbit animals lived under the same roof; warren had vermin traps for catching these often have outbuildings nearby, stoats and weasels. These usually and small fields. survive as small granite Farmhouses, cottages funnel walls. and barns abandoned more recently survive Boundaries and as substantial ruins; Route Markers these too are important Boundary stones monuments to marking parishes, Dartmoor’s history. Pillow mound, landownership, Vermin trap, Ditsworthy Ditsworthy rabbit warrens and the like are common. Field boundaries can vary from low They come in many stony banks (like reaves) to well built forms, but usually as upright stones granite walling 1 metre or more in height. with a letter or letters carved into them. From medieval times onwards rabbits Route markers indicated safe tracks were kept in warrens for their meat across the moor. The commonest form and fur. Pillow mounds can be found is the medieval granite cross, although in old rabbit warrens. These are made others may have letters carved on them of earth, oval or rectangular in shape, or plaques attached to them. look closer Bellever round house excavation Please Protect the 5 Never disturb an archaeological site or ruined structure by moving stones Future of Our Past around. Please remember: 6 Never dig in or around an archaeological site. Information buried 1 Dartmoor is one of the most important below ground is as important to the archaeological landscapes in Britain. archaeologist as that which can be Each individual feature may hold a seen above ground. vital clue to the past. 7 Do not camp or light fires in or 2 Many archaeological sites are around archaeological sites. protected by law (the Ancient 8 Do not use archaeological sites to Monuments and Archaeological store equipment or as hiding places Areas Act 1979 ). or as bivouac sites. YOU MAY BE BREAKING THE LAW 9 Mineshafts and old mine workings if you disturb them. can be dangerous. 3 Many archaeological features are 10 A pile of stones is not just a pile of smaller than you might expect. stones. A moment’s carelessness can Some are only a few centimetres high. destroy thousands of years of history. 4 If you are not sure whether something is an archaeological feature or not, give it the benefit of the doubt and leave well alone..